Yoga envy may occur as you watch another student smoothly gliding from one graceful yoga asana (posture) to the next.. Maybe they effortlessly achieve the full physical expression of the asana while you struggle to relax into your muscles by lengthening your exhale and focusing on release. But are they really practicing yoga?
What is a enviable practice? Is it a natural physical ability to physically achieve postures, or is it preferable to have moved from physical stiffness to a more graceful looseness. Do we earn respect from the results or thej ourney? Is it about the physical practice at all? If asana is only used to enable us to sit; is that which may be envied more about the breath. Is it the distinct loud Ujjayi breath you find it hard to ignore in an Ashtanga class. Or maybe the throbbing intense chanting ofOM; louder and longer than anyone elses. Is it a brow unfurrowed by stress, a physical breathing practice that appears to absorb the practitioner totally or a pranayama practice that includes regular long kumbhaka.
Many times in class I find myself noticing those students who to my mind are not practising what I define to myself as yoga. They may be attending class in person, in body, but if they are not there in their heart or their focus are they doing yoga or making pretty shapes? There are those that go for the socializing, those for whom it is just what they do at that time every week and have for the last decade. Used to the routine and disliking any changes. Woe betide any teacher who tries to change those class times/ venues with the students who have an established class routine!! Yet there is nothing in life more guaranteed than change and if they can’t accept that, are they being yogic? Is it instead more yoga to appreciate the infrequent classes we make, but learn the relevant lessons in everyday life as well as on our mats. Is it more yogic to bend less easily but focus more on each present moment as we breathe into each tense muscle and each small physcial achievement.
Yoga happens when something changes, something shifts. It is when the focus on the breath and the absorption in the postural intricacies, leave you with momentary mental clarity. Yoga for me is the immediate calm and quiet in an otherwise hectic mind, and the longer term changes in everything from personal relationships, sleeping habits and comfort within our physical body.
Some of the slim, groomed and coordinated students that we allow ourselves to make comparisons with may not be really doing yoga! They could be in a folded in half into a forward bend, shoulders under legs and torso flat on the floor while we barely fold at the hips. They could however be thinking of anything, not focusing on keeping their minds clear and focused by keeping their breath long,calm and unflustered. They may well be focused somewhere else entirely. Maybe the ease with which they flow into physical postures doesn’t allow the same necessity to relax into the breath which provides us with that yogic peace.
Without sustaining their focus on the present moment, the intricacies of the breath and the resulting calmness of the mind are they just attending the yoga class rather than doing the yoga class. Is it still yoga if you just do the positions without involving the mind? If it doesn’t change you in some way is it yoga?
For me part of the joy of my practice is the continual struggle to refocus, the need to re relax muscles as they sneak tension in when I take my awareness momentarily elsewhere.. I enjoy the constant reminders of physical checks, the soothing sound of my Ujjayi breath flowing as I try to get my limbs to do the same. I revel in the struggle because it allows the achievements to be even more special!!
Yoga is a journey, and an opportunity to learn. Those that merely focus on the physical achievements are missing out on so much potential peace. Those that find the physicality easy are maybe facing a longer struggle in learning to control the breath. Whereas those of us who aren’t so naturally blessed with flexibility or strength will utilize the breath to work with the body from the start, learning to integrate the two from the beginning.
So don’t look at the physically able with envy, don’t see those students who attend every week without fail for years as more yogic. They may find it hard to accept change or variety in routine. Instead be thankful for your own opportunuities to learn. Be grateful that you get to appreciate the small things that they may take for granted. Understand that a yoga practice is personal, and in some ways more transformational for the ability to accept change and focus on the present moment of the journey.